Board edge connector

ABSTRACT

Apparatuses and methods for forming serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) board edge connectors with electroplated hard gold contacts. One example method can include forming a tie bar on an inner layer of a printed circuit board (PCB), forming a trace on an outer layer of the PCB, forming a via, wherein the via electrically couples the tie bar to the trace, forming a contact coupled to the trace on the outer layer, and sending an electrical charge from the tie bar through the via and the trace to the contact to electroplate the contact.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/378,570, filed Dec. 14, 2016, the specification of which is includedherein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to memory devices, and moreparticularly, to serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) board edgeconnectors.

BACKGROUND

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) is a computer bus interfacethat connects host bus adapters to storage devices such as hard diskdrives, optical drives, and/or solid-state drives, among other devices.SATA succeeded the older Parallel ATA (PATA) standard, offering severaladvantages over the older interface: reduced cable size and cost (sevenconductor s instead of 40 or 80), native hot swapping, faster datatransfer through higher signaling rates, and more efficient transferthrough an (optional) I/O queuing protocol.

SATA host adapters and devices communicate via a high-speed serial cableover two pairs of conductors. In contrast, parallel ATA used a 16-bitwide data bus with many additional support and control signals, alloperating at much lower frequency. To ensure backward compatibility withlegacy ATA software and applications, SATA uses the same basic ATA andATAPI command sets as legacy ATA devices. SATA data cables can includeseven conductors (three grounds and four active data lines in two pairs)and can connect one motherboard socket to one storage device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus in the form of a computingsystem including at least one memory device in accordance with a numberof embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of a portion of a printed circuitboard (PCB) including at least one board edge connector in accordancewith a number of embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of a portion of a printed circuitboard (PCB) including at least one board edge connector in accordancewith a number of embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate graphs of signals associated with performingconnector operations in accordance with a number of embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Apparatuses and methods for forming serial advanced technologyattachment (SATA) board edge connectors are provided in the presentdisclosure. In one or more embodiments, an example includes a tie bar onan inner layer of a printed circuit board (PCB), a trace on an outerlayer of the PCB, and a contact on the outer layer, wherein the contactis coupled to the trace and wherein the contact is gold-plated.

One example method can include forming a tie bar on an inner layer of aPCB, forming a trace on an outer layer of the PCB, forming a via,wherein the via electrically couples the tie bar to the trace, forming acontact coupled to the trace on the outer layer, and sending anelectrical charge from the tie bar through the via and the trace to thecontact to electroplate the contact.

A number of embodiments of the present disclosure include a board edgeconnector, which can be formed on a PCB. A board edge connector,according to embodiments of the present disclosure, can have voltagesignal integrity that is substantially similar to a solder down SATAconnector, while reducing fabrication cost by forming the connector onthe PCB.

In one or more embodiments, the board edge connector is configured to beformed on a PCB. In some embodiments, the contact of the board edgeconnector is a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) contact,although other board edge connectors could be formed according to thepresent disclosure. In one or more embodiments, the board edge connectorelectrically couples a solid state drive (SSD) or a hard disk drive(HDD) to a computing system and can includes contacts that areelectroplated with gold.

In previous approaches, a SATA board edge connector, which includescontacts that do not reach the edge of the PCB, could not beelectroplated using tie bars without causing signal degradation due tothe tie bars causing the contacts to reach an end of the board edgeconnector and not be the particular distance from the edge of anapparatus as defined by SATA input/output (I/O) standard. In one or moreembodiments, the contacts of a board edge connector is electroplatedwhile maintaining the particular distance from the edge of an apparatusas defined by SATA input/output (I/O) standard

In the following detailed description of the present disclosure,reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof,and in which is shown by way of illustration how a number of embodimentsof the disclosure may be practiced. These embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those of ordinary skill in the art topractice the embodiments of this disclosure, and it is to be understoodthat other embodiments may be utilized and that process, electrical,and/or structural changes may be made without departing from the scopeof the present disclosure.

As used herein, “a number of” something can refer to one or more of suchthings. For example, a number of memory devices can refer to one or moreof memory devices. Additionally, designators such as “C”, “M”, and “N”,as used herein, particularly with respect to reference numerals in thedrawings, indicates that a number of the particular feature sodesignated can be included with a number of embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

The figures herein follow a numbering convention in which the firstdigit or digits correspond to the drawing figure number and theremaining digits identify an element or component in the drawing.Similar elements or components between different figures may beidentified by the use of similar digits. As will be appreciated,elements shown in the various embodiments herein can be added,exchanged, and/or eliminated so as to provide a number of additionalembodiments of the present disclosure. In addition, the proportion andthe relative scale of the elements provided in the figures are intendedto illustrate various embodiments of the present disclosure and are notto be used in a limiting sense.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus in the form of a computingsystem 102 including at least one memory device 106 in accordance with anumber of embodiments of the present disclosure. As used herein, amemory device 106 or a host 104 might also be separately considered an“apparatus.” The memory device 106 can be a solid state drive (SSD) or ahard disk drive (HDD), for instance, and can include a host 104.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the host 104 can be coupled to the memorydevice 106 via a plurality of channels and can be used to send databetween the memory device 106 and the host 104. The host 104 can be inthe form of a standardized interface. For example, when the memorydevice 106 is used for data storage in a computing system 102, the host104 can be a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA), peripheralcomponent interconnect express (PCIe), or a universal serial bus (USB),among other connectors and interfaces. In general, however, the host 104can provide an interface for passing control, address, data, and othersignals between the memory device 106 and the host 104 having compatiblereceptors for the host 104.

Host 104 can be a host system such as a personal laptop computer, adesktop computer, a digital camera, a mobile telephone, or a memory cardreader, among various other types of hosts. The host 104 can include asystem motherboard and/or backplane and can include a number of memoryaccess devices (e.g., a number of processors). The host 104 can also bea memory controller for memory device 106 (e.g., having an on-diecontroller).

The memory device 106 can include a number of arrays of memory cells(e.g., non-volatile memory cells). The arrays can be flash arrays with aNAND architecture, for example. However, embodiments are not limited toa particular type of memory array or array architecture. The memorycells can be grouped, for instance, into a number of blocks including anumber of physical pages. A number of blocks can be included in a planeof memory cells and an array can include a number of planes. As oneexample, a memory device may be configured to store 8 KB (kilobytes) ofuser data per page, 128 pages of user data per block, 2048 blocks perplane, and 16 planes per device.

In operation, data can be written to and/or read from memory (e.g.,memory device 106 of computing system 102) as a page of data, forexample. As such, a page of data can be referred to as a data transfersize of the memory system. Data can be sent to/from a host 104 in datasegments referred to as sectors (e.g., host sectors). As such, a sectorof data can be referred to as a data transfer size of the host 104.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of a portion of a printed circuitboard (PCB) including a portion of a board edge connector in accordancewith a number of embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodimentof FIG. 2 illustrates a SATA board edge connector. However, embodimentsdescribed herein are not limited to this example. As shown in FIG. 2,the SATA board edge connector 208 includes a tie bar 212 and a trace 214electrically coupled by a via 218, a contact 216 electrically coupled tothe trace 214 wherein the via 218 and trace 214 are configured to passan electrical charge from the tie bar 212 to the contact 216. Also shownin FIG. 2, memory device via 220 coupled to contact 216. The memorydevice via 220 passes signals from a memory device to contact 216.

SATA board edge connector 208 can include a number of tie bars 212-1, .. . , 212-C and a number of traces 214-1, . . . , 214-C. The number oftie bars 212-1, . . . , 212-C and a number of traces 214-1, . . . ,214-C are electrically coupled by a number of vias 218-1, . . . , 218-C.The number of vias 218-1, . . . , 218-C and the number of traces 214-1,. . . , 214-C are configured to pass an electrical charge from thenumber of tie bars 212-1, . . . , 212-C to the number of contacts 216-1,. . . , 216-C. SATA board edge connector 208 can include a number ofmemory device vias 220-1, . . . , 220-C. The number of memory devicevias 220-1, . . . , 220-C are configured to pass signals from one ormore memory devices to a number of contacts 216-1, . . . , 216-C.

In some embodiments, via 218 is a copper structure. Also, via 218 in oneor more embodiments connects an inner layer and an outer layer of thePCB. Contact 216, in one or more embodiments, is on the outer layer andthe tie bar 212 is on the inner layer.

In one or more embodiments, a SATA board edge connector 208 is formed byforming tie bar 212 on an inner layer of PCB 210, forming trace 214 onan outer layer of PCB 210, forming via 218 to electrically couple tiebar 212 on the inner layer to trace 214 and contact 216 on the outerlayer. An electrical charge can be sent from tie bar 212 through via 218and trace 214 to contact 216 to electroplate contact 216. Trace 214 canbe formed by etching copper coating PCB 210.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of a portion of a printed circuitboard (PCB) including at least one board edge connector in accordancewith a number of embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodimentof FIG. 3 illustrates a SATA board edge connector. However, embodimentsdescribed herein are not limited to this example. As shown in FIG. 3,the SATA board edge connector 308 includes a tie bar 312 on an innerlayer of a PCB 310, a trace 314 on an outer layer of the PCB 310, and acontact 316 on an outer layer, wherein the contact 316 is coupled to thetrace 314 and wherein the contact 316 is gold-plated. Also shown in FIG.3, memory device via 320 coupled to contact 316. The memory device via320 passes signals from a memory device to contact 216.

SATA board edge connector 308 can include a number of tie bars 312-1, .. . , 312-C on an inner layer of a PCB 310, a number of traces 314-1, .. . , 314-C on an outer layer of the PCB, and a number of contacts316-1, . . . , 316-C on an outer layer, wherein the number of contacts316-1, . . . , 316-C are coupled to the number of traces 314-1, . . . ,314-C and wherein the number of contacts 316-1, . . . , 316-C aregold-plated. SATA board edge connector 308 can include a number ofmemory device vias 320-1, . . . , 320-C. The number of memory devicevias 320-1, . . . , 320-C are configured to pass signals from one ormore memory devices to a number of contacts 316-1, . . . , 316-C.

SATA board edge connector 308 can include a number of openings 322-1, .. . , 322-C. In one or more embodiments, a via (e.g. via 218 in FIG. 2)is removed after the electrical charge is passed from tie bar 312 tocontact 316. The electrical charge is passed from tie bar 312 to contact316 to electroplate contact 316. When contact 316 is connected to tiebar 312, tie bar 312 causes discontinuity in contact 316. Removing a via(e.g. via 218 in FIG. 2) electrically disconnects tie bar 312 fromcontact 316 therefore eliminating discontinuity and parasitic loadingcaused by tie bar 312 and leaves an opening 322. In some embodiments, avia (e.g. via 218 in FIG. 2) is removed by drilling to form opening 322.For example, a via (e.g. via 218 in FIG. 2), in one or more embodiments,is drilled with a larger diameter drill than the diameter of the via(e.g. via 218 in FIG. 2) to remove the electroplated coating of a via(e.g. via 218 in FIG. 2).

In one or more embodiments, a SATA board edge 308 connector is formed byforming tie bar 312 on an inner layer of PCB 310, forming trace 314 onan outer layer of PCB 310, forming via 318 to electrically couple tiebar 312 on the inner layer to trace 314 and contact 316 on the outerlayer. An electrical charge can be sent from tie bar 312 through via 318and trace 314 to contact 316 to electroplate contact 316. In someembodiments, via 318 is removed once contact 316 is electroplated.

FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate graphs of signals associated with operations on amemory system. FIG. 4A illustrates graph 430 of a solder down connector.FIG. 4B illustrates graph 440 of a board edge connector before removingvias. FIG. 4C illustrates graph 450 of a board edge connector afterremoving vias.

Graph 430 illustrates the signal 436 during a transition 432 of thememory system that includes a solder down SATA connector. Graph 440shows the signal 446 during a transition 442 of a board edge connectorbefore removing vias. Graph 450 illustrates the signal 456 during atransition 452 for a board edge connector after removing the vias.

Graph 430 and graph 450 have similar signals. The signals 436 and 456 ingraph 430 and graph 450 during transition 432 and 452 are more stableduring transitions. Unlike graph 440 where the signal 446 during atransition 442 is less stable. When the transition is less stable thisindicates degradation in the signal integrity.

Graph 430 illustrates the signal 438 after a transition 434. Graph 440shows the signal 448 after a transition 444 of a board edge connectorbefore removing vias. Graph 450 illustrates the signal 458 after atransition 454 for a board edge connector after removing the vias.

The signals 438 and 458 in graph 430 and graph 450 after a transition434 and 454 have similar signals that are more stable after transitions.Unlike graph 440 where the signal 448 after a transition 444 is lessstable.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that anarrangement calculated to achieve the same results can be substitutedfor the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to coveradaptations or variations of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. It is to be understood that the above description has beenmade in an illustrative fashion, and not a restrictive one. Combinationof the above embodiments, and other embodiments not specificallydescribed herein will be apparent to those of skill in the art uponreviewing the above description. The scope of the various embodiments ofthe present disclosure includes other applications in which the abovestructures and methods are used. Therefore, the scope of variousembodiments of the present disclosure should be determined withreference to the appended claims, along with the full range ofequivalents to which such claims are entitled.

In the foregoing Detailed Description, various features are groupedtogether in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining thedisclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the disclosed embodiments of the presentdisclosure have to use more features than are expressly recited in eachclaim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matterlies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus,the following claims are hereby incorporated into the DetailedDescription, with each claim standing on its own as a separateembodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: a tie bar on an innerlayer of a printed circuit board (PCB); and a contact on the outerlayer, wherein the contact is gold-plated and the tie bar iselectrically disconnected from the contact by an opening between theinner layer and the outer layer.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe apparatus is configured to be used on an integral board edgeconnector.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the contact is a serialadvanced technology attachment (SATA) contact.
 4. The apparatus of claim1, wherein the contact electrically couples a solid state drive (SSD) toa computing system.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the contact iselectroplated.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the contact is aparticular distance from an edge of the PCB.
 7. The apparatus of claim6, wherein signal integrity associated with the contact is approximatedequal to signal integrity associated with a solder down connectorcontact.
 8. An apparatus, comprising: a tie bar; a trace; and a contact,wherein the contact is coupled to the trace, the contact is gold-plated,and the tie bar is electrically disconnected from the contact by anopening between an inner layer and an outer layer of a printed circuitboard (PCB).
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the contact is aparticular distance from an edge of the apparatus as defined by SATAinput/output (I/O) standard.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein thecontact is shorter than other contacts on the PCB.
 11. The apparatus ofclaim 8, wherein the contacts are electroplated.
 12. The apparatus ofclaim 8, wherein the contact is on the outer layer of the PCB.
 13. Theapparatus of claim 8, wherein the tie bar is on the inner layer of thePCB.
 14. An apparatus, comprising: a tie bar on an inner layer of aprinted circuit board (PCB), wherein a first end of the tie bar isadjacent to an opening in the PCB that extends between the inner layerand an outer layer of the PCB; a trace on the outer layer of the PCB;and a contact on the outer layer, wherein the contact is coupled to thetrace, the contact is gold-plated, and the tie bar is electricallydisconnected from the contact by an opening between the inner layer andthe outer layer.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the opening isformed by drilling.
 16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the contactis a particular distance from an edge of the PCB.
 17. The apparatus ofclaim 14, wherein a second end of the tie bar is closer than the contactto an edge of the PCB.